Portal:Current events/2023 August 18

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August 18, 2023 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Afghan conflict
- Healthcare in Afghanistan
  - The World Health Organization says that 29 million Afghan people require urgent aid, emphasising the importance of increased investment in healthcare services in Afghanistan. (Al Arabiya)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2022–2023 western Russia attacks
  - Russia says that Ukraine launched a drone attack on Moscow, striking a building in the International Business Center. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin says that air defences shot down a drone with debris falling over the Expocentre. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

2023 wildfire season
- 2023 Canadian wildfires
  - McDougall Creek Fire
    - Premier of British Columbia David Eby declares a province-wide state of emergency in response to the ongoing wildfires. (CBC News)
    - The city of Kelowna, British Columbia, declares a state of emergency and evacuations, as wildfires engulf parts of the city and surrounding area. Lake Okanagan Resort and several residential buildings are destroyed. (CTV News Vancouver)
- 2023 Hawaii wildfires
  - The death toll from the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, United States, rises to 114. (Forbes)
- 2023 Washington wildfires
  - The community of Medical Lake, Washington, U.S., is evacuated due to the Gray Fire near Spokane in eastern Washington. (AP)
2023 Pacific hurricane season
- Hurricane Hilary
  - The National Hurricane Center issues the first ever tropical storm watch for the West Coast of the United States in Southern California as Hurricane Hilary approaches from Mexico. (AP)
The Greek Coast Guard rescues 90 migrants from a stranded sailboat near the Aegean Sea island of Amorgos. (AP)

Law and crime

Countess of Chester Hospital baby murders
- Lucy Letby is convicted of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder following the deaths of multiple babies in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital in Chester, England. Letby is acquitted on two other counts of attempted murder. (BBC News)
Operation Lesa Pátria
- The Brazil Federal Police arrests seven military police officers that are accused of assisting right-wing rioters and supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro during the January 8 attacks on government buildings in Brasília. (ABC News)
Haitian crisis
- The UN Human Rights Office reports that at least 2,439 people have been killed by gang violence in Haiti this year. (AFP via France 24)
Kurz corruption probe
- Former Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz is charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government. (AP)
Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Moscow City Court dissolves the Sakharov Center, a human rights organization, for holding unauthorized conferences and exhibitions. (AFP via Barron's)
In Oupeye, Liège Province, Belgium, a man on a quad bike is shot dead by police after running over a policeman and refusing to stop at a police control. Anti-police riots break out in the village and eleven people are arrested. (Le Soir)

Politics and elections

2023 Gabonese general election
- Gabon's main opposition parties field former education minister Albert Ondo Ossa as their presidential candidate in the upcoming election, challenging the incumbent president Ali Bongo Ondimba who seeks a third term. (AFP via TRT Afrika)
2023 Quran burnings in Sweden
- Swedish police detain a woman who sprayed an anti-Islam activist with a fire extinguisher as he staged a Quran-burning protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm. (AP)